How to make a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days?

Ever since Spiti Valley has emerged as a popular place, the need for making a trip to this middle land in a short number of days has become apparent. Almost every day I am asked for some plans about making a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days or even 5 days in hand. It is not a mistake of someone who does not know anything about high altitude travel or how far this beautiful cold desert resides in Himachal. All thanks to the 1000s of beautiful, barren and breathtaking landscape pictures spread over Social media that lures them in making such optimistic plans. However, it does not work like that when it comes to travel to high altitude places like Spiti Valley or Ladakh.

Planning a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days?

When you travel to places like Spiti Valley or Ladakh in the Himalayas, you have to consider many other aspects. It includes considering acclimatization, present road conditions, how are you traveling, who are you traveling with, ay present medical conditions, what are your expectations of stays, etc and the list goes on. One must consider that in remote places of Himalayas, things aren’t as readily available how they are in our cities. Keeping some of these things in mind, I will try to share an itinerary or a travel plan for making a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days in this article. It will help those tourists who are in a hurry and interested to either ticking off Spiti Valley from their travel bucket list or interested in witnessing a glimpse of its majestic landscapes.

Common Itinerary – Spiti Valley in 6 Days

You must note one thing that it takes at least three days to reach Spiti Valley from Kinnaur side and at least two days from Manali side. Hence, if you just have 5-6 days in hand, then traveling from Kinnaur side is out of the question. Hence, you are left with the option of traveling to Spiti Valley in 6 days from Manali side only. It also means that you can only travel when Manali to Kaza road is open, which usually opens up by mid of June and remains open up to October. You can travel on Manali – Kaza road up to mid of October after which it becomes quite cold, windy and risky to drive or ride on it. You can always keep a track of Manali – Kaza road updates in our DoW Community thread Manali – Kunzum Pass – Spiti Valley Road Status

Day 4 | Kaza – Ki – Kibber – Rangrik – Kunzum Pass – Chandratal Lake

Ki is a famous monastery and others are places to explore as a lovely drive

Enjoy the most scenic drive of entire Spiti Valley between Losar and Kaza at an easy pace

Visit Chandratal via Kunzum Pass and enjoy the evening there

Camps are about 2 KMs from the lake, either stay there or back to Battal where there is a PWD rest house now though without electricity. But, no point going back a painful ride to Losar over Kunzum Pass unless you want to stay in guest house with electricity. Better stay at Battal and save time as well as energy for next day.

About 5 – 5.5 Hrs of drive in the day

Overnight at Chandratal

Day 5 | Chandratal – Batal – Gramphu – Rohtang Pass – Manali

Drive through Battal – Chattru – Gramphu towards Rohtang Pass is out of the world

Head back to Manali via Rohtang Pass

About 6 – 7 Hrs drive easily if you do not get messed up Rohtang Pass

If there is time explore Manali, that is if going by overnight Volvo which starts around 5.30 PM

Manali Local sightseeing which includes Hadimba Temple, Manu Temple, Mall Road, Local Monastery, Old Manali, Vashisth Hot Water Springs (never found it interesting) etc.

Overnight at Manali

Day 6 | Manali – Mandi – Jahu – Bhota – Una – Delhi

If not taking Volvo and driving self to Delhi, you can try different route

Take a longer but different route to Delhi from Jahu – Bhota – Una side

Route is pretty scenic, much better roads and offer good views

About 14 Hrs, as it is about 55 KMs longer route but devoid of bad roads and truck traffic/li>

Sweet home

Day 7-8 | Buffer days to be kept in case of road closure due to landslides or snowfall or perhaps you want to enjoy more 🙂

Beautiful views of Spiti Valley

Conclusion

I hope this plan or itinerary for a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days will be useful for travelers planning their short journey to this place. Feel free to share it with your family & friends who are looking out for a short trip to Spiti Valley in this coming season. In case you have any questions or doubts, in planning your trip to Spiti Valley, please post them in the comments section of this article OR in “Ask a Travel Question” section of the website.

Are you looking for the CUSTOMIZED TOURS?? Get in touch with our our handpicked & trusted Destination Specialists from the Himalayas who offer SPECIAL DISCOUNTED RATES to all the readers/followers of the Devil On Wheels website.

About Author

You can call me an avid traveler, a day-night dreamer and a passionate lover of the Himalayas who has a high zest for driving whilst exploring new places in the Himalayas & sharing back those Himalayan travel experiences with the other fellow travelers... I am in love with Spreading Smiles in Himalayas through DoW Causes & currently enjoying life as Happy Traveling Soul at DoW Community. You can read more about me in detail at the link here ...

79 Comments

Comments section gets closed in 90 days. You can follow me on Instagram and ask your travel questions in a direct message on Instagram too. I also conduct a weekly Q&A session every Saturday evening on Instagram, so see you there !!

I am planning 7-8 day max trip to Spiti. I prefer to enter via Narkanda from Chandigarh and complete the circuit via Manali, Shimla. Apart from visiting Spiti, I need to visit ans spent time in the monasteries (Tabo and key mainly )as a part of my study. But, i don’t want to miss out the whole experience of Spiti.

I have already gone through a couple of articles you have shared earlier and i have some doubts:

1. Is it safe for a female solo backpacker?

2. Can you please tell me how to go about planning this? (depending soley on public transport – i would prefer an overnight stay within or near the monasteries -is it possible?)

You can go as per following itinerary:
Day 1: Delhi to Narkanda or if possible Rampur
Day 2: Rampur to Sangla
Day 3: You must visit Chitkul
Day 4: Chitkul to Tabo – It will be real challange
Day 5: Tabo to Kaza, Leave by 3 PM and you can reach Lossar by 6 PM. Remember to fill up Petrol in Kaza
Day 6: Leave as early as you can in morning. By evening reach Manali
Day 7: Manali to Delhi

We are going to Delhi-Shimla-Sarahan-Sangla-Chitkul-Kalpa-Nako-Kaza-Chandratal-Manali from 24th June to 1July 2017. Would like to know the road and weather condition. Is there any precaution we need to take?

Aish, road conditions are in general OK as they used to be. Kinnaur Valley has average to bad, bumpy roads, once you enter Spiti Valley you will have average bumpy roads mostly and then Kaza to Manali especially up to Rohtang Pass will be quite challenging.

Well, Swift Dzire will surely gonna take a beating especially in the under belly. Iin case you reach late in afternoon, some water crossings on Rohtang Pass – Gramphu – Kunzum Pass – Kaza road may not be even possible to cross it. Only take that car in case you are experienced with driving in such bad road conditions else better avoid it.

Well, such road blocks are common and run all year long. You just have to try your luck. Kinnaur has a very fragile set of mountains due to digging by man into them, they are always vulnerable for landslides and road blocks.

Delhi to Shimla, Narkanda, Rampur, there is no problem.
Little difficulties starts from Sarahan to Chitkul, but manageable.
While going from Kalpa to Nako, road conditions are very bad due to Jaypee Power Projects.
There could also be landslides between Nako and Tabo.
After Kaza to Lossar and Lossar to Manali road conditions are worst. You can barely drive up to 20km/ hr. Leave as early as you can from Kaza or Lossar if you want to reach Manali by evening.

We are a bunch of guys planning to visit Spiti in the month of AUG (Probably the 15th AUG week). We have a total of 7 days in hand. We all will be travelling from Kolkata and will start our journey from Manali/Shimla whatever we find suitable for us. Requesting you to please advice on the route which we should opt for, which all placess we should visit.

1. Yes, Manali – Rohtang Pass – Kunzum Pass – Kaza
2. You should get a taxi. You can get connected directly to some drivers in Himachal or Spiti Valley or Kinnaur Valley at the link: List of Taxi Drivers for Spiti Valley & Kinnaur Valley. These drivers can come and pick you up from Manali / Shimla / Delhi / Chandigarh too, of course with a price of the pickup as well.
3. Local taxis run between Kaza and Manali on sharing basis per seat but they do not stop for any sightseeing or pictures.
4. How many total days do you have in hand? Did you check: How to make a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days?

1) Is it better to plan the trip ourselves or you recommend us to get in touch with any travel agent. What do you suggest?
2) We are interested in staying in camps at Chandertal. Anyone you know who can help us with this.

We have contacted various vehicle agent for hiring a cab for our 6-7 days spiti tour. There charges varies from 3500-4000 per day. Don’t you think its too . What can be the reasonable charge according to you. And if you have any suggestion or recommendation, please do let us know.

Rishi, in general these are the rates now depending on the number of days they charge. You can get connected directly to some drivers in Himachal or Spiti Valley or Kinnaur Valley at the link: List of Taxi Drivers for Spiti Valley & Kinnaur Valley. These drivers can come and pick you up from Manali / Shimla / Delhi / Chandigarh too, of course with a price of the pickup as well.

The rates of the taxis are about Rs 3200-3500 per day depending on the number of days you plan to travel, more the days, less the price. If you are 2-3 in the group, you can opt for sedan taxi cars as well which charges around Rs 2200 per day.

Otherwise, taxis, in general, are also available on the spot from Shimla or Manali from respective taxi stands. These drivers can help you with finding local stay options too.

I am planning a trip to Spiti Valley from 4th June to 14th June 2017. I plan to complete the circuit Delhi-Shimla-Narkanda-Kaza-Manali. But reading your various threads it seems the road beyond Kaza may not be open for us to complete the circuit. In that case can you suggest an alternate itinerary/travel plan so that we can make the maximum for this Spiti venture. We will be five people traveling in my self driven Innova. Myself, my wife, my two teenaged daughters and my father aged 70 years. And also we will also be taking along our pet dog Leo (Labrador). Can you also tell if the hotels/guest houses enroute will be able to accomodate our pet in their places.

It will be better to postpone it by a week in case you want to do the full circuit of Spiti Valley. Else you will have to come back the same route from Shimla – Kinnaur Valley. You can check a very balanced and most common itinerary for Spiti Valley followed by many travellers including me at the link here for 10-11 days: Most Common Itinerary for Spiti Valley.

No Rajveer, you do not need any permits to travel to Leh from Spiti – Keylong route. However, in Leh The environment fees of Rs 400 & Inner Line Permits (most likely as well) will again be required in Ladakh for Indian Tourists / Nationals with effect from April 1st, 2017. This has been recently announced and is available on official website of Leh administration. It is expected that a public circular should follow soon as well. Hence, like it used to happen before 2014, all Indian Nationals or Indian Tourists WILL need to pay environment fees and may need to also get the inner line permits in Leh – Ladakh region in order to visit the restricted places like Dah, Hanu Villages, Pangong Tso, Man, Merak, Tso Moriri, Nyoma, Loma Bend, Khardung La, Nubra Valley, Turtuk, Tyakshi, Digger La, Tangyar (for trekking only).
For details on inner line permits process and to download application form read the link All you want to know about Inner Line Permits for Ladakh. Page 1 is Protected Area Permit applicable for foreigners. Fill in Page 2, 3 for Inner Line Permit applicable for Indians, got to DC office in Leh and submit the application with valid Photo ID nationality proof and pay the required fee of Rs 400 + Rs 20 x number of days you will be in Ladakh.

Thanks dheeraj sirji. Can you please guide me route to leh from spiti. If it is offroad then it will be good for us. We are planning to start our trip on 2nd June from Mumbai.
Thanks dheeraj sir in advance.

Rajveer, the road from Kaza to Keylong is not expected to open by mid of June. So, second June you cannot take either Manali – Leh highway nor Kaza – Keylong – Leh road. Only option to travel is through Srinagar and situation up there is a bit tense.

Neha, it will not help with acclimatization. It will take 4 days to reach Leh from Srinagar side starting from Delhi and 3 days to come back from Leh from Manali side to Delhi. This makes it 7 days. 1 Day is required in Leh for acclimatization. You have about 10 days. 1 Day can be used as Day trip to Pangong Tso and other day can be used as day trip to Nubra Valley or just Khardung La pass.

Is there anyway way to travel from Leh to Spiti without going to Manali?
Iam looking for a route which can save some time as i have less days.
Also is it possible to travel from leh to manali in 1 Day?

Hi DHEERAJ can you give me contact numbers of some budget homestays at Sarahan per room 800/- to 1000/- per night oh yes what are the chances of Kaza to Manali on 5th June because we already planned from Shimla to Manali from 3rd June via Kinnaur and Spiti if the road will not open then we have to back again Kalpa ,Jeori,Shoja then Manali or any other route is there.Please give any suggestion.

Hi Dheeraj,
I am planning to go to the mountains by the 1st or second week of June. here is the plan as of now: leave Mumbai on a friday evening flight to delhi and get an overnight bus to kasol. spend the rest to Saturday and Sunday at kasol. I have monday to friday to ride to spiti, possible camp somewhere great and back to kasol.
Is this doable or is it totally stupid.
Thank you in advance. 🙂

Hi,
what I really wanted to know was, is it ok to ride a rented bike from kasol all the way to kaza in a day. Also is it a good idea to get my own tent and camp out in spiti. If so, is there a place you would suggest that is perfect for this. also is it possible to include nako lake in the itinerary.
Thanks a lot in advance, all this information is just gold. 🙂

It will be too much to ride a bike from Kasol to Kaza in a day, Better reach Manali or Solang Valley a night before and then start the ride early morning from Solang Valley to reach Kaza. Nako will be too much to add in 5 days, better stick to Spiti only. Regarding camping yes it is possible, please refer: Top 10 Tips for Camping in Ladakh & Spiti Valley

Hi Dheeraj, we 4 adukts r planning to visit lahaul spiti in first week of June 17 going from shimla and xominf from manali. Is it ok. Also tell us the budget. We are foinf by balero diesel. We have 8-10 days in hand.

I think there are a lot of typos in your message but I understand you plan to make a trip to Spiti Valley in the first week of June. I will recommend that you postpone the trip by two weeks as Manali – Kaza route will open by mid of June only. You can check a very balanced and most common itinerary for Spiti Valley followed by many travellers including me at the link here for 10-11 days: Most Common Itinerary for Spiti Valley.

The rates of the taxis are about Rs 3200-3500 per day depending on the number of days you plan to travel, more the days, less the price. If you are 2-3 in the group, you can opt for sedan taxi cars as well which charges around Rs 2200 per day.

Otherwise, taxis, in general, are also available on the spot from Shimla or Manali from respective taxi stands. These drivers can help you with finding local stay options too.

You can keep an average of 900-1200 per person per day for food and stay on the tour to Spiti Valley.

You can get connected directly to some drivers in Himachal or Spiti Valley or Kinnaur Valley at the link: List of Taxi Drivers for Spiti Valley & Kinnaur Valley. These drivers can come and pick you up from Manali / Shimla / Delhi / Chandigarh too, of course with a price of the pickup as well.

I am looking for a 7 days trip to Spiti valley in 1st week of June 2017. Is it possible for you to please share an appropriate itinerary for the same and also, confirm if the stretch between Kaza & Manali (Via Chandratal) will be oped during that time?

Neha, you can search for Travel Calendar from the main menu. We do not sell any tour or travel services. People looking out for travel partners post their plans to find online travel partners. Post your entry too.

Thanks a lot for your prompt reply.Me and my wife will be self driving a wagon r from kolkata during end
september 1st night we will be at kanpur 2nd night at chandigarh we would now seek your help to do spiti
valley and rohtang pass and come back from manali side to chandigarh we have 10days chandigarh to chandigarh.Please help us in preparing our itirenary things one should not miss and also do we need pass
for rohtang?

SHUVAJIT, since you are traveling from Chandigarh, any special reason you want to do the trip from Manali side only? Why not enter from Shimla – Kinnaur and exit from Manali? You can check a very balanced and most common itinerary for Spiti Valley followed by many travellers including me at the link here for 10-11 days: Most Common Itinerary for Spiti Valley.

Hi Dheeraj, you are doing an incredible work. Thank you for your initiative and posts.
We are planning to go until Kaza and Key Monastery next week (7th-12th May) through Kinnaur from Shimla. Do you think these routes are clear? We are aware that Rohtang Pass isn’t open yet. So, we will return from the same route. Please suggest.

In this you have listed out itenary for those who are driving to spiti. It would be a great help if you share the link if already written or post a peice for those who would travel using public transport.
Thank it you

Neha, Google maps, and roads in the Himalayas do not go hand in hand 😉 … There may be multiple challenges, water crossings, landslides, other cars stuck in between and of course bad roads. You will feel for about 60-80 KMs, as if, you are driving on river bed.

Follow on Instagram & Ask Questions

Get Travel Tips & Updates

DoW Travel Community, promoting Responsible Travel, is dedicated to Himalayas where like minded travellers of Himalayas can collaborate to share their Himalayan travel knowledge and experiences to help each other.

Sign In

Recover Password

Recover Password

Register

Log In

A password will be e-mailed to you.

Yes, add me to your mailing list.

Are you looking for the CUSTOMIZED TOURS?? Get in touch with our our handpicked & trusted Destination Specialists from the Himalayas who offer SPECIAL DISCOUNTED RATES to all the readers/followers of the Devil On Wheels website.